The Mafia Heir
1496 Words
The SUV sped through the slick New York streets, tires slicing through rainwater as if the storm itself feared getting in the way. I sat trapped in the back seat, wedged between two massive men whose shoulders alone blocked any hope of escape. My wrists weren’t tied, but I might as well have been every inch of this vehicle to remind me I had no freedom.
No voice.
No control.
No choice.
Across from me sat the man whose name alone could paralyze the bravest criminals.
Damian Moretti.
The heir to the Moretti Mafia empire.
The cold architect of every nightmare whispered in the underbelly of the city.
He hadn’t spoken since dragging me into the SUV. He simply sat there, his broad frame relaxed yet commanding, legs slightly apart, one hand resting casually on his knee, the other lifting a gun he inspected with infuriating calm. The weapon gleamed faintly under the interior lights.
He didn’t look at me, but I felt his presence like a storm pressing down on my lungs.
The silence gnawed at me until desperation pushed the words out.
“Where are you taking me?”
He didn’t lift his head. “Somewhere safer than that alley.”
I stiffened. “Safe? You kidnapped me.”
Only then did he look up.
His eyes were cold gray, sharpened by dangerment mine and refused to let go.
“If I had kidnapped you,” he said slowly, “you wouldn’t be sitting here talking.”
Something in the way he said it made the hair on my arms rise.
“What do you want from me?” My voice cracked slightly. Damn it.
He tilted his head, studying me like a puzzle he wasn’t sure he wanted to solve. “You went looking for us. You got our attention. Congratulations.”
The mocking calm in his voice infuriated me. “I wasn’t looking for you. I was looking for my sister. Sofia didn’t just vanish, someone took her. Someone powerful. Someone tied to your family.”
One of the guards beside me shifted, but Damian raised a single finger and the man froze.
Damian leaned forward just a little, elbows resting on his knees. “You’re not the first person who came after us for answers. Most don’t breathe long enough to ask a second question.”
A chill spread through me.
I was playing with fire.
Dangerous, beautiful fire.
But I couldn’t stop now.
“What did you do to her?” I was forced out. “Where is she?”
His gaze didn’t soften. If anything, it deepened like he was searching inside me for something.
“Why do you assume we took her?”
“Because everything points to you,” I shot back. “Nico said”
“Nico talks too much,” Damian interrupted. “And people who talk too much tend to meet unfortunate ends.”
My chest tightened. “So you are going to kill him.”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether he said anything useful.”
I swallowed. “And me? Are you planning to kill me too?”
He let out a soft, humorless exhalenot quite a laugh, but close. “If I wanted you dead, Ariana, you wouldn’t have seen the inside of this car.”
My breath hitched when he said my name again smooth, effortless, dangerous. Like he owned it now.
“How do you even know who I am?” I whispered.
“I make it my business to know everyone who touches my world.” He leaned back. “You’ve been on our radar for a while.”
The words struck like lightning.
I wasn’t hunting the mafia.
They’d been watching me first.
“Why?” I whispered.
“Because curiosity kills more than cats.”
I clenched my fists. “Stop deflecting. Tell me about Sofia.”
A flicker almost too quick to notice passed in his expression. Not guilt. Not fear.
Recognition.
He knew something.
I leaned forward, heart pounding. “You know her. You know what happened to her.”
The SUV jerked suddenly as the driver turned sharply off the main road and into a gated side street. An iron fence towered ahead, the kind used to keep intruders out and secrets in.
Damian’s voice dropped, dangerously quiet. “You’re asking questions that can get you buried.”
I didn’t back down. “And you’re avoiding them. Why?”
He stared at me for a long, suffocating moment. Rain battered the windows. The engine hummed. My pulse roared in my ears.
Finally, he spoke.
“Your sister didn’t just ‘vanish.’ She was involved with the wrong people.” His jaw tightened. “People who weren’t us.”
My heart lurched. “Who? Tell me who!”
Before he could answer, the SUV rolled to a stop. The gates opened with a mechanical groan. We drove into a sprawling private compound lit with soft golden lamps, too beautiful and too silent to belong to criminals.
But I wasn’t fooled.
Behind beauty, monsters often hid.
The vehicle stopped. One guard immediately stepped out and opened Damian’s door. Another tried to open mine, but Damian raised one hand.
“She comes out with me.”
A shiver ran down my spine.
He exited first, then extended his hand toward me not offering, but commanding.
I ignored it and stepped out on my own.
The rain had eased into a cold drizzle. The air felt heavy with danger as the mansion loomed ahead dark windows, towering pillars, and an elegance that whispered wealth and blood.
I crossed my arms. “So this is where you kill people?”
For the first time, something close to amusement flickered across Damian’s face. “Not everyone.”
“Lucky me.”
His eyes locked onto mine. Slow. Intense. “You have no idea how lucky you are.”
Then he turned toward the mansion. “Follow me.”
I didn’t move. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what happened to Sofia.”
He stopped.
The air shifted, electric.
He turned back slowly, each step measured, until he stood inches from me. His hand lifted, and for a moment I thought he would touch my face.
He didn’t.
He traced a line down my arm instead, barely grazing the skin, but the heat of it seared through my entire body.
“You want the truth?” he murmured.
“Yes.” My voice was barely breathing.
“Truth is dangerous, sweetheart.”
“Tell me anyway.”
His eyes held mine, unreadable pools of gray storm.
“Your sister was seen with someone she shouldn’t have been with.”
“Who?”
“A traitor,” he said quietly. “A man who betrayed my family and paid for it with his life.”
I went cold all over.
“What does that have to do with Sofia?”
“She witnessed something,” Damian said. “Something she shouldn’t have seen. She ran. And other people came after her.”
“Who?”
He shook his head. “That’s all I know.”
Lie.
My instincts screamed it.
He was hiding something. Not just from me, maybe from himself.
I stepped closer, anger rising to the surface. “My sister is gone. Don’t play games with me.”
His jaw clenched, and for a moment, his cold façade cracked.
He grabbed my wrist not harshly, but firmly enough to freeze me in place. “If your sister is alive,” he said, voice dropping to a low, dark whisper, “I’ll find her.”
Hope stabbed at me. Sharp and painful. “Why would you help me?”
His gaze lowered to my lips for a breathtaking second before returning to my eyes.
“Because you walked into my world,” he said, “and now your life is tied to mine.”
My pulse kicked violently.
I could feel the heat rolling off him.
The danger.
The dominance.
The impossible pull.
“I don’t want to be tied to you,” I whispered.
He leaned into my space, his breath brushing my cheek. “Doesn’t matter what you want.”
A soft chime interrupted the tension, the sound of the mansion door unlocking as a guard pushed it open.
Damian released my wrist, leaving my skin hot where he touched me.
“Welcome to the Moretti estate,” he said without looking back. “You’re staying until I decide you’re no longer a problem.”
My chest tightened. “I’m not your prisoner.”
He paused at the doorway, glanced over his shoulder, and gave me a slow, dangerous smile.
“Ariana,” he said softly,
“You're exactly my prisoner.”
And with that, he disappeared inside leaving me standing in the rain, breath shaking, heart pounding, and knowing that the night everything changed…
It was only the beginning.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD